A campaign to promote sustainable living is on

During the ongoing pandemic, environment upkeep has taken a beating with people either staying indoors or totally absorbed in their hardships. To drive home the message that to protect nature is to protect ourselves, a city-based NGO Vridhi Foundation launched an online campaign 'I Pledge 3' Season 2 on October 2. It is exhorting nature lovers and the general public to three pledges in three months, with the mottos of sustainable living , biodiversity conservation and mental well-being.

Kashyap Devulapally, co-founder of Vridhi Foundation, says," To bring about some change in the society with respect to our environment, we have launched this campaign. This is the second season. The first season was conducted in 2017. Many people are still stuck amid the four walls, so, to infuse positivity into their lives, we launched this campaign. We should not withdraw from the nature and try to promote home composting and use eco-friendly material that would have a positive impact on the nature. Keeping up mental well-being is possible by bonding with our near and dear ones. Biodiversity conservation pledge is to stress the importance of taking care of all living beings. The campaign would conclude on January 2. On the first day, more than 100 people registered for this campaign."

The organisers believe that if a person takes these pledges, one at a time, in three successive months, then it would eventually become a habit. Whoever takes the pledge as part of the I Pledge3 campaign have to take a snap of themselves performing the pledge and share it on their social media accounts, inspiring others to follow. "This campaign identified 40-plus interns and they are given training. The interns would be voluntarily taking forward the campaign worldwide. Our campaign is more of zero budget or minimal budget nature and we have raised funds internally for the purpose," they said. "I wanted to contribute something to the society and when I heard that Vridhi was going to launch a unique online camping for sustainable living, I have voluntarily joined it as an intern," said a volunteer Krishna Nayan.